Leading at the Intersections

Powell Tate’s report, Leading at the Intersections in 2022, offers insight on key themes at the center of our work in 2022, as well as some of our best thinking from the past year.

By Paul Massey

Let’s agree. Individually and collectively, we’ve experienced massive disruptions in the past two years.

Few things in our lives and surroundings have been untouched. We’re reimagining how we live and work. We’re urgently seeking to restore public health in the face of an ongoing global pandemic. We’re confronting unrelenting assault on bedrock principles of democracy in the U.S. and elsewhere. All this while the climate crisis worsens.

If we’ve learned anything, it’s that chaos is a constant. In this maelstrom, it’s never been more critical to bring openness, curiosity and resilience to how we engage with and make sense of a changing world. Not to look away from the challenges – but rather to see them clearly, in all their complexity. And to see the possibilities for progress.

As Ellen McGirt of Fortune has written, we are living in “liminality… the space between two states of being. In anthropology, it is the middle stage of a rite of passage—you’re no longer exactly who you were, but you’re not yet what you’re going to become.”

That’s a notion we’ve embraced in our work, certainly more so in recent years.

It’s also been a source of inspiration for this Leading at the Intersections report. This resource offers insight on key themes at the center of our work in 2022, as well as easy links to some of our best thinking from the past year, organized into four topic areas:

  • Leadership in a Time of Disruption
  • Pivoting for Purpose & Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Impact
  • The Imperative for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • The Convergence of Geopolitics & Communications Strategy

Seeking deeper understanding of the world around us is central to our work as a specialty public affairs agency and part of The Weber Shandwick Collective. We’re focused on combining new sources of data – and good old reliable human intelligence – to accelerate solutions that are convention-defying, inclusive, energizing and transformative.

And despite the chaos, we’re hopeful about the days ahead and unshaken in our belief that action based on pragmatic optimism can overcome the challenges of our time.

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Author

Paul is the president of Powell Tate and global lead of Weber Shandwick’s Social Impact practice. He counsels clients on communications strategies and creative campaigns focused on complex business, policy and social issues.

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